"Compassion and Enabling"

"Compassion and Enabling"

by Admin

"Sometimes there is a very blurry line between feeling and expressing compassion, and enabling someone. Showing compassion is giving someone space and understanding so they can work through their predicament whilst remaining at a healthy emotional distance. This healthy emotional distance can be hard to judge in close knit relationships such as marriage and families. For should one fall over the edge of compassion and into the field of pity, neither party will benefit. Pity serves no one in relation to creating the desired changes within relationships of any kind.

Somewhere in between the blurry lines of compassion and pity lies the process labeled as enabling. Enabling is an overdose of compassion. When compassion distorts into pity, the individual is assisted in continuing with behavioral traits that clearly do not serve either party with regards to emotional, mental and psychical health.

People become enabled to continue their damaging behavioral traits via beloved others wearing the mask of compassion. The beloved other becomes drawn into the vacuum of the sufferer’s reality. Unknowingly, they begin to slip into pity, whilst believing that they are still expressing compassion. Once a person becomes drawn into the illusion of the other person’s reality they begin to make excuses for themselves as a means of justifying the abuse they are committing. They are enabling the sufferer, therefore abusing the sufferer, whilst they wear the mask of compassion. For anyone who is assisting the abuser, via allowing the abuser to continue on their discourse without obstruction, using (false) compassion (pity) as a reason, is ultimately abusing and damaging the abuser even more. And they are also damaging themselves.

Now this sounds all good and fine in theory from the clear perspective of the unattached observer, but what of the person in the eye of the tornado. What of the mother whose daughter is severely addicted to drugs? And what of the husband who must cope with the severe depression of his wife?

Compassion and pity become extremely difficult to distinguish in such circumstances. One’s own belief systems become strained and one starts to question the integrity of their own reality. Little by little people begin to compromise themselves in order to compensate for the others distorted behavioral traits. This is pity and pity is abuse. These self compromises come from one’s own false belief that they alone are responsible for ensuring that the abuser is healed. They take the false responsibility on board based on ethics and morals they have adopted from society or other people, meanwhile their intuition, (their inner truth) screams at them telling them that this does not feel right.

When one indulges another’s reality long enough via pity, one cannot help become exposed to deteriorating emotional and psychological states. This is the clearest sign that you have been enabling someone. If you are showing someone genuine compassion then your psychological and emotion health will not be affected.

When you find yourself constantly dwelling over another’s situation as well as altering your psychological and emotional states to compensate for another’s predicament, then you are enabling someone. This for most people is too harsh a reality to admit, especially when the person is very close to you. Usually one’s entire belief system is based on giving love and helping another, yet when love and compassion distort into pity and enabling, we are simply forgetting to love ourselves first, and in doing so, we hurt the other instead.

On the surface this may sound selfish, yet the underlying truth is that we cannot help another, unless we love ourselves correctly first. Another harsh reality is that you are responsible for no one but yourself. Compassion allows someone the opportunity to realize this even in the mist of immense suffering. Pity enables another to disperse responsibility away from themselves and onto another, which helps and heals no one.

There are no definitive guidelines to judge whether you are expressing compassion or enabling someone. But perhaps the question you could ask yourself is; if I continue to live with my present emotional and mental states, will this affect my overall health in the future? If you can honestly answer ‘no’, then you are expressing compassion. If you can’t honestly say ‘no’, then perhaps you need to step back a touch and love yourself more, and then you will have a clearer perspective in regards to the other, and what the other really requires."

- http://thespiritualpsychologysite.com/

o

"Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion... is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception."

- Sharon Salzberg

The Daily "Near You?"

Tours, Centre, France. Thanks for stopping by!

"Don't Wonder..."

"Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't.
In the face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant,
wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together."

- "Grey's Anatomy"

"Stupidity..."

“Evil isn’t the real threat to the world. Stupid is just as destructive 

as Evil, maybe more so, and it’s a hell of a lot more common. What we 

really need is a crusade against Stupid. That might actually make a difference.” 

-  Jim Butcher

'The U.S. Navy Just Blew A Giant Hole In An Iranian Cargo Ship As The Crisis In The Strait Of Hormuz Escalates To An Entirely New Level"

by Michael Snyder

"Apparently the Trump administration was not kidding when it warned that no Iranian ships would be allowed through the blockade. Just a little while ago, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. Navy has blown an enormous hole in the side of an Iranian cargo vessel that willingly chose to ignore a warning to turn around. Just two days after the completely irrational euphoria that we witnessed on Friday, the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is worse than ever, and there is no end in sight.

On Friday, I explained why the extremely positive headlines that we were reading in the western world were dead wrong. When the two week ceasefire with Iran was originally unveiled, the Iranians were supposed to completely open the Strait of Hormuz for that two week period. But they hesitated because fighting was still raging in Lebanon, and the Iranians believed that the fighting in Lebanon was supposed to be part of the ceasefire. When Israel and Hezbollah finally agreed to a ten day ceasefire late last week, the Iranians finally fulfilled their obligation by opening the Strait of Hormuz for the remainder of the ceasefire. But the Iranians also warned that if the U.S. did not respond by lifting the naval blockade for the rest of the ceasefire the Strait of Hormuz would be quickly closed once again, and that is precisely what happened.

Just hours after opening it, the IRGC shut down all traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and announced that any attempt to pass through would be “considered cooperation with the enemy, and the violating vessel will be targeted”…Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reportedly issued a sweeping warning to ships in the region on Saturday, saying any movement toward the Strait of Hormuz will be viewed as cooperation with “the enemy.”

“Following the violation of the ceasefire conditions, the American enemy did not lift the naval blockade of Iranian vessels and ports; therefore, from this afternoon, the Strait of Hormuz is closed until this blockade is lifted,” the IRGC said, according to Tehran-based WANA News Agency. The IRGC also instructed vessels in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman to remain at anchor, warning that any ship approaching the strategic waterway “will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the violating vessel will be targeted.”

Needless to say, the Iranians were not bluffing. On Saturday, multiple commercial vessels were fired upon…"Gunfire was reported after at least two vessels tried to pass through the waterway on Saturday – with the captain of one tanker claiming his ship was approached by two Iranian gunboats. US security sources claimed that Iran carried out at least three attacks on ships, Axios reports.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre confirmed a cargo vessel was attacked by a projectile near Oman – damaging containers on board. The captain of an Indian oil tanker that was completely convinced that he had permission to go through the Strait was desperately asking for permission to turn around once the Iranians started shooting at his ship…In the radio transmission, the captain of the Sanmar Herald oil tanker addresses ‘Sepah navy,’ which is the name of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy. Clearly alarmed, he continues: ‘This is Motor Vessel Sanmar Herald. You gave me clearance to go! My name is second on your list. ‘You gave me clearance to go! You a firing now. Let me turn back!’ Marine tracking data shows the Sanmar got part of the way through the Strait before sharply doubling back on itself.

If the Trump administration would have just lifted the blockade for the duration of the ceasefire, a lot of tankers could have potentially gotten through the Strait, and that would have been a huge blessing to everyone. But instead we are back to square one, and the Iranians are mocking us… Ebrahim Azizi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, taunted Trump over the closure. In a post on social media, he said: “We warned you, but you ignored it. Now ENJOY the Strait of Hormuz returning to the status quo.”

This is a very alarming turn of events. A reporter for CBS News traveled to the Strait of Hormuz to see things for himself, and he encountered dozens of large commercial vessels just sitting still in the water…"We crossed from one Gulf country into another and eventually found ourselves on a coastal road that felt almost too beautiful for the tensions that lay just offshore.

On one side were jagged mountains rising straight out of the earth, completely bare of vegetation. On the other, clear blue water stretched out into the Gulf. And then, as the road curved, we saw the ships. Not one or two, but dozens. Sitting still. Waiting."

Overall, there are more than 3,000 ships that are currently trapped in the Persian Gulf with no way out. Of course the Iranians cannot get any ships out either now that a U.S. Navy blockade is in place. On Sunday, one of our guided missile destroyers blew a giant hole in the side of an Iranian cargo ship named “TOUSKA”…

It took a while for that to sink in when I first came across that post by President Trump. I could hardly believe what I had just read. This is a major escalation. And the U.S. is also threatening to seize Iranian vessels anywhere in the world during the days ahead… The US military is preparing to board Iran-linked vessels and oil tankers in the coming days, a move that will expand a conflict largely confined to the Strait of Hormuz into a global crackdown. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced the escalation on Thursday, according to US officials who spoke with The Wall Street Journal. Caine said the US ‘will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran’.

The Trump administration is convinced that this blockade is the key to ending the war. They believe that the Iranians will be forced to give in eventually. On the other side, the Iranians are convinced that holding the global economy hostage will force the Trump administration to give in.

Both sides are making tragic miscalculations, and meanwhile the entire world is suffering. It is spring planting season, and we can’t get fertilizer from the Middle East into the hands of farmers all over the northern hemisphere that desperately need it… Beginning in the 1960s, in an effort to diversify their economies, the Gulf countries invested heavily in their fertilizer industries, leveraging their abundant natural resources. Foreign fertilizer companies began flocking to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, drawn by low taxes, a favorable geographic location, and the city’s seamless air and sea transport hubs.

The Gulf’s investment in fertilizer paid off, as by 2026, much of the developing world was reliant on Gulf fertilizers. Three of the top ten global urea exporters, the world’s most commonly used nitrogen-based fertilizer, are located within the Persian Gulf. One-third of internationally traded fertilizers and roughly 45% of sulphur exports, a key ingredient in phosphate fertilizers, pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s blockade has brought all of these exports to a near-halt. The timing could hardly be worse, coming during planting season for much of the world.

In addition, nations such as India that normally import large amounts of natural gas from the Middle East in order to make their own fertilizer are being forced to cut back production…The effects go well beyond halting shipments of fertilizer produced in the Gulf, which is situated at the head of a vast global supply chain. India, itself a big fertilizer producer, has had to scale back production due to fuel shortages linked to the war. New Delhi ordered fertilizer plants to scale back production to 70% capacity to cope with the shortage. “This is not only an energy shock. It is a systematic shock affecting agrifood systems globally,” Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Máximo Torero, warned on Thursday.

We are facing a global fertilizer crisis that is far beyond anything that we have ever seen before. Here in the United States, this has come at a time when we are already in the midst of a historic drought… A massive drought has emerged across large swaths of the US agricultural belt, threatening crops and livestock and eventually affecting food prices, at a time when fertilizer and diesel costs are soaring. As of early April, 60% of the Lower 48 is in drought as the Northern Hemisphere growing season begins and farmers begin plantings, according to NOAA. The southern US is already experiencing severe, extreme, and even exceptional drought conditions, putting pressure on key crops such as sugarcane, rice, and peanuts, while fruit trees have also been damaged by extreme temperatures.

Food production is going to be way down all over the planet in 2026. José Andrés is warning that we are headed for “a very big increase in famine across the world by the fall of 2026 and 2027″… The celebrity chef and humanitarian José Andrés has a warning for the suits in Washington and around the world: stop looking at the oil tickers and start looking at the soil. The World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder believes that the world is sleepwalking into a massive, multi-year famine, being slow-walked by the “silent” collapse of the global fertilizer trade as a byproduct of the war with Iran. “I foresee a very big increase in famine across the world by the fall of 2026 and 2027,” Andrés told the Guardian on the sidelines of Semafor’s global economy conference in Washington.

He is right. If the Strait of Hormuz does not open soon, food shortages will hit the world like a freight train in 6 to 9 months. But unless consequences are going to hit us immediately, most people in the western world don’t seem to care. Instead, most of us just continue to go about our lives as if nothing unusual is going on, and for the moment ignorance is bliss."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

"Food Shortage Is Coming"

Full screen recommended.

Snyder Reports, 4/20/26

"Food Shortages Hit The US:

 Millions Must Prepare Now"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 4/20/26

"Stock Up at Sam's Club, Price Increases Begin"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Full screen recommended.

Travelling With Russell, 4/20/26

"First Look Inside Moscow's 

Brand New Supermarket"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"How It Really Is"

"A Deeper Dive Into The Donald: The King's Megalomania is Nearing its Imperial Zenith" (Excerpt)

"A Deeper Dive Into The Donald: 

The King's Megalomania is Nearing its Imperial Zenith'

by David Haggith

Excerpt: "I read some interesting observations this weekend from a former psychologist at Johns Hopkins University who said that Trump’s psychosis (beyond mere dementia) has reached a stage he describes as “magical thinking.” This is particularly dangerous when narcissism, now running reckless under dementia, reaches the level of megalomania in a person who actually has near absolute power in human terms. (Tell me Trump doesn’t fit every word of the definition provided at that link!) Reaching this level in his narcissism puts Trump in the same dangerous sphere as other supreme evil emperors, such as Nero, Caligula, and Kim Jung Un, who deified themselves, now that Trump is almost daily trying to do the same thing.

Trump clearly sees himself as a global emperor as the talks incessantly about taking over Canada, Greenland, Venezuela, and Cuba and flaunts a map that shows Mexico and all of Central America as being part of a single American nation or empire) that he will bring about, and he clearly envies the adoration and worship that he sees Jesus getting from the “Christians” who are in his closest ring of support, which includes the false prophets who feed his megalomania/delusions of grandeur by telling him over and over how much like Jesus he is and how chosen by God.

His megalomania has finally become so painfully obvious that, even several of his loudest and most popular (and often obnoxious) supporters are now insisting he be “Twenty-fifthed” before he causes serious damage to the US and the world. (We’ll come to those below.) The Donald’s mad behavior has finally grown so outrageous that many of those with actual Trump Derangement Syndrome can no longer avoid seeing his derangement. (A syndrome where those who go along with the president in his deranged beliefs about his greatness accuse everyone who sees clearly that the Donald is as deranged as a mad duck is accused of being deranged for recognizing something long obvious that they simply don’t WANT to see.)

I’ll let the professor of psychology explain how the Deranged Don’s behavior has culminated in such a crisis that even his strongest supporters are finally pressed to admit Donald is one mad duck: "President Donald Trump has crossed from grandiosity into full-blown psychosis, psychologist Dr. John Gartner has warned. Gartner, a former professor at Johns Hopkins University, told The Daily Beast Podcast that the 79-year-old president is engaged in “magical thinking….”

“It’s something that, again, we associate with psychosis. We also associate it with young children. Freud called it ‘primary process.’ It’s kind of the most primitive type of thinking, where if you imagine it, it must be true. But this is just magical thinking. Anything that occurs to him - any stray, crazy thought - is true.”

Gartner, who said a few weeks ago that Trump’s mental “deterioration” was accelerating, then mentioned several of Trump’s fanciful social media posts: his since-removed depiction of himself as Jesus Christ, his mock-up as the pope, and his Truth Social post calling himself the “acting president of Venezuela.” “His grandiosity is so extreme that not only does he want to be the pope and Jesus and the president of Venezuela and the Mullah of Iran - he wants to be all of these things at once. He wants the world to worship him, and he wants to erect massive monuments to praise himself,” he said.

King Donald needs for the Trump ballroom to be the biggest and grandest and most powerfully situated ever. He needs the Arc de Trump to be bigger than the Arc de Triomphe and other magnificent arches celebrating historic victories so it is able to be seen all the way down the Mall from the Capitol. He can’t stand that other emperors had arches and he doesn’t; so, he’ll see to it that he does. He’s always had to put his name in huge letters on almost everything he does. He needs to sign the dollar bill and stimulus checks so his name gets the credit for as much of the money that goes into the hands of the masses as possible so he will earn their adoration with other people’s money. He starts “Trump” accounts with free money for kids so they’ll grow up feeling thankful for all he has given them. Everything he does is a huge upward spiraling circle of praise to him. And now he’s reached the level of aspiring to be worshipped as a deity… even as Jesus, but he hasn’t been able to pull that off… yet. (Or I’m wrong, and he really just wants to be a doctor dressed in ancient Roman garb who heals with orbs of light and has a halo of golden light fringing his golden hair.)

Just a little segue: Many people became interested in how the AI imagined Trump’s Jesus image, putting something in there of which, perhaps, Trump was not aware. In the light that the lines of perspective follow into the background behind Orange Jesus (or the “Great Pumpkin,” as I like to call him now that he’s totally bat-guano insane, as his biggest have supporters agreed over the past week or two) is an image of a demonic entity that stands behind him. Usually the silhouettes in the light behind a glorified person represent the entity that sent him or show what is coming along in his wake. So, think about that for fun!"

Full, most highly recommended article is here:

- https://www.thedailydoom.com/

o

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, "Trump's Mental State"

"Trump the God"

"Trump the God"

by Chris Hedges

"During the two years I spent writing “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America,” I encountered numerous mini-Trumps. These self-proclaimed pastors - very few had any formal religious training - preyed on the despair of their congregants. They were surrounded by sycophants and could not be questioned. They merged fact with fiction, peddled magical thinking and enriched themselves at the expense of their followers. They claimed their wealth and ostentatious lifestyle, including mansions and private jets, was a sign of being blessed. They insisted they were divinely inspired and anointed by God. They were, within their hermetic circles of their megachurches, omnipotent.

These cult pastors promised to use their omnipotence to crush the demonic forces that had created misery in the lives of their followers - unemployment and underemployment, evictions, bankruptcies, poverty, addiction, sexual and domestic abuse, and crippling despair. The more power the cult leaders possess - according to their followers - the more certain is a promised paradise. Cult leaders stand above the law. Those who desperately place their faith in them want them to be above the law.

Cult leaders are narcissists. They demand obsequious adulation and total obedience. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim that Donald Trump is able to draw a “perfect map” of the Middle East, or White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s statement that Trump is always the “most well-read person in the room,” are two of innumerable examples of the abject fawning required by those in a cult leader’s inner circle. Blind loyalty matters more than competence.

Cult leaders are immune from rational and fact-based critiques amongst those who invest hope in them. This is why Trump’s hardcore followers have not abandoned him and will not abandon him. All the chatter about fissures in the MAGA universe misreads Trump cultists.

All cults are personality cults. They are extensions of the prejudices, worldview, personal style and ideas of the cult leader. Trump, with his faux “Trump crest,” revels in Louis XVI-inspired tasteless kitsch awash in gold Rococo and glittering chandeliers. The women in Trump’s court have “Mar-a-Lago Faces” – overinflated lips, taut, wrinkle-free skin, silicone gel-filled breast implants and chiseled cheekbones, capped off by gobs of make-up. They wear stiletto heels and garish outfits that Trump finds appealing. Trump’s men, who in his eyes must be telegenic and from “Central casting,” dress like 1950s advertising executives. They sport Trump-gifted Florsheim black shoes, specifically $145 Lexington Cap Toe Oxford.

Cults impose dress codes that mirror the style and taste of the cult leader. The followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho, dressed in red and orange robes, often combined with a turtleneck and beads. Heaven’s Gate members wore Nike Decade trainers and black jogging bottoms. Men in the Unification Church, known as Moonies, wore crisp white shirts and pressed slacks. Women wore dresses. They looked as if they were on their way to Sunday School.

Like Jim Jones, who convinced or forced over 900 of his followers - including 304 children aged 17 and younger - to die by ingesting a cyanide-laced drink, Trump is aggressively courting our collective suicide.

Trump dismisses the climate crisis as a hoax. He unilaterally withdraws from nuclear arms agreements and treaties. He antagonizes nuclear powers, such as Russia and China. He impetuously launches wars. He alienates and insults U.S. allies. He dreams of annexing Greenland and Cuba. He embraces holy crusade against Muslims. He attacks his political opponents as enemies and traitors, belittling them with crude insults. He slashes social programs designed to sustain the vulnerable. He expands an internal security apparatus — masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goons — to terrorize the public. Cults do not nurture and protect. They subjugate, annihilate and destroy.

Trump employs the U.S. military without oversight or constraint. He presides, for this reason, over what the psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton called a “world-destroying cult.” Lifton lists eight characteristics of “world-destroying cults” that implant what he calls “totalistic environments.” These eight characteristics are:

1. Milieu control. The total control of communication within the group.

2. Loading the language. Using “groupspeak” to censor, edit and shut down criticism or opposing ideas. Followers must mouth the mindless Trump-approved clichés and cult jargon.

3. Demand for purity. An us-versus-them view of the world. Those who oppose the group are wrong, unenlightened and evil. They are irredeemable. They are contaminants. They must be eradicated. Any action is justified to protect this purity. The goal of all cult leaders is to widen and make irreconcilable social divisions.

4. Confession: The public confession of past wrongs. In the case of Trump supporters, this includes the disavowal, as U.S. Vice President JD Vance and others have done, of past criticism of Trump, with public admission of their former wrong-thinking.

5. Mystical manipulation. The belief that those in the group are specially chosen with a higher purpose. Those in Trump’s orbit act as though they are divinely elected. They convince themselves that they are not coerced to embrace Trump’s lies and vulgarities - or repeat cult jargon - but do so voluntarily.

6. Doctrine over person. The rewriting and fabrication of personal history to conform to Trump’s interpretation of reality.

7. Sacred Science. Trump’s absurdities - global temperatures are declining rather than rising, the noise from wind turbines cause cancer and ingesting disinfectants such as Lysol is an effective treatment for the coronavirus - are presented as grounded in science. This scientific patina means Trump’s ideas apply to everyone. Those who disagree are unscientific.

8. Dispensing of existence. Nonmembers are “lesser or unworthy beings.” Meaningful existence means being part of the Trump cult. Those outside the cult are worthless. They do not deserve moral consideration.

Trump is no different from past cult leaders, including Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles, the founders of the Heaven’s Gate cult - the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who led the Unification Church - Credonia Mwerinde, who led the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in Uganda - Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, and David Koresh, who led the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas.

Cult leaders are deeply insecure, which is why they lash out with fury at the slightest criticism. They mask this insecurity with cruelty, hypermasculinity and bombastic grandiosity. They are paranoid, amoral, emotionally crippled and physically abusive. Those around them, including children, are objects to be manipulated for their enrichment, enjoyment and often sadistic entertainment.

Cults are characterized by pedophilia and sexual abuse. Those, including Trump, who were frequently in the orbit of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, replicated the abuse endemic in cults. “People’s Temple children were frequently sexually abused,” writes Margaret Singer in “Cults In Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace.” “While the group was still in California, teenage girls as young as fifteen had to provide sex for influential people courted by Jones. A supervisor of children at Jonestown had a history of child sexual abuse, and Jones himself assaulted some of the children. If husbands and wives were caught talking privately during a meeting, their daughters were forced to masturbate publicly or to have sex with someone the family didn’t like before the entire Jonestown population, children as well as adults.”

Cults, Singer writes, are “a mirror of what is inside the cult leader.” “He has no restraints on him,” she writes of the cult leader: "He can make his fantasies and desires come alive in the world he creates around him. He can lead people to do his bidding. He can make the surrounding world really his world. What most cult leaders achieve is akin to the fantasies of a child at play, creating a world with toys and utensils. In that play world, the child feels omnipotent and creates a realm of his own for a few minutes or a few hours. He moves the toy dolls about. They do his bidding. They speak his words back to him. He punishes them any way he wants. He is all-powerful and makes his fantasy come alive. When I see the sand tables and the collections of toys some child therapists have in their offices, I think that a cult leader must look about and place people in his created world much as the child creates on the sand table a world that reflects his or her desires and fantasies. The difference is that the cult leader has actual humans doing his bidding as he makes a world around him that springs from inside his own head."

The language of the cult leader is rooted in verbal confusion. Lies, conspiracy theories, outlandish ideas and contradictory statements, often made in the same statement or only minutes apart, paralyzing those attempting to read the cult leader rationally. Absurdism is the point. The cult leader does not take his or her statements seriously. They often deny ever making them, although they are documented. Lies and truth are irrelevant. The cult leader is not seeking to impart information or truth. The cult leader is seeking to appeal to the emotional needs of cult members.

“Hitler kept his enemies in a state of constant confusion and diplomatic upheaval,” Joost A.M. Meerloo wrote in “The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control and Menticide.” “They never knew what this unpredictable madman was going to do next. Hitler was never logical, because he knew that that was what he was expected to be. Logic can be met with logic, while illogic cannot – it confuses those who think straight. The Big Lie and monotonously repeated nonsense have more emotional appeal in a cold war than logic and reason. While the enemy is still searching for a reasonable counterargument to the first lie, the totalitarians can assault him with another.”

It does not matter how many lies uttered by Trump are meticulously documented. It does not matter that Trump has used the presidency to enrich himself by an estimated $1.4 billion over the last year, according to Forbes. It does not matter that he is inept, lazy and ignorant. It does not matter that he stumbles from one disaster to the next, from tariffs, to the war on Iran.

The traditional establishment, whose credibility has been destroyed because of its betrayal of the working class and subservience to the billionaire class and corporations, has little power over Trump’s supporters. Their vitriol only increases his popularity. Political cults are the bastard children of a failed liberalism. Trump’s approval rating may be at around 40 percent, as of April 20 - according to an average of multiple polls collated by The New York Times - but his base remains unmovable.

The Democratic Party, rather than pivot to address the social inequality and abandonment of the working class - which it helped orchestrate - has hit upon tax cuts as a road to regaining power. It will, once again, reduce our social, economic and political crisis to the personality of Trump. It will offer no reforms to rectify our failed democracy. This is a gift to Trump and his followers. By refusing to acknowledge responsibility for inequality and proposing programs to ameliorate the suffering it has caused, Democrats engage in the same kind of magical thinking as Trump cultists.

There is no way out of this political dysfunction unless popular movements rise to cripple the machinery of government and commerce on behalf of a betrayed public. But time is running out. Trump and his goons are serious about invaliding or cancelling the midterm elections if they perceive defeat. If that happens, the cult of Trump will be unassailable."

- https://chrishedges.substack.com/

Bill Bonner, "Your Money Is No Good Here"

Programmable money.

"Your Money Is No Good Here"

by Bill Bonner

"It is basically a way to keep you in an open-air prison."

- Catherine Austen Fitts

Baltimore, Maryland - "Over the weekend, the world’s attention was on the US/Israeli war against Iran...and Lebanon. Was it on, or off? The strait of Hormuz...open, or closed?While these things dominated the headlines...the feds quietly stitched more pieces onto their Frankensteinian new money system.

It reminded us of 1971. That was the fateful year that President Richard Nixon, aided and abetted by the top ‘conservative’ economist of the time, Milton Friedman, created the new, fake dollar...which has twisted the economy and added an excess of $80 trillion to America’s debt burden.

At the time, 55 years ago, only a few cranks and crackpots even noticed. The Nixon team disguised the major change with a minor one. It announced wage-price controls on the same evening; they were so preposterous that they absorbed almost all the media’s attention and were withdrawn soon after. But the new money is still here…now in its 55th year. We presume that the all-time high in bond yields - achieved in July 2020 - marked the beginning of the end. The dollar has lost 99% of its value (against gold) so far; now it will lose the rest.

CPI Index since 1913, 

Purchasing power of the US dollar in the average US city.

And now that this Funny Money Era (FME) approaches its denouement...what new monstrosity, hidden by the fog of war, slouches into Washington?

Already in place, in July 2025, was the “Genius Act” preparing stablecoins for entry into the mainstream financial system. And now comes this...MN Gordon: "On April 8, 2026, less than 10 days ago, while most people were distracted with bombs dropping on Iran, the U.S. Treasury, its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a joint proposed rule to implement provisions of the GENIUS Act. This rule formally integrates stablecoins into the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

According to Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, “This proposal will protect the U.S. financial system from national security threats without hindering American companies’ ability to forge ahead in the payment stablecoin ecosystem.”

What does this mean? We don’t know either. So, we turn back to Mr. Gordon: ‘This, in essence, establishes a permanent digital leash that can be used to control your behavior. As these regulations tighten, the wall between your private wealth and federal oversight disappears. Every transaction you make will be visible to a centralized authority.’

Nixon began the FME when he turned the real dollar (backed by gold) into a phony dollar (backed by nothing). Real money must not be subject to manipulation by its issuers. It must also be something you can hold, free and clear.

Imagine that you sell tomatoes and receive a gold coin in return. Transaction complete. You earned your money, now you can do with it as you please. Instead, imagine that there is an invisible code embedded in the coin...so that it can only be used to buy an EV or a MAGA hat! This is the next phase of the Funny Money Era. Not only is the money fake...the feds are aiming to use it to control you.

The feds have been attaching strings onto your money for years. Money Laundering provisions, ‘Know Your Customer’ rules, ‘suspicious activity’ reports...and now with the Genius Act and the new implementing regulations, your money will become ‘programmable’...with algorithms in the money itself that will dictate, automatically, what you can do with it.

At the international level, foreign firms earned dollars by selling products to Americans. Then, like trip wires to a land mine, they saw the strings attached. Their money could be seized or sanctioned...and they could be cut off from the world’s SWIFT money transfer system. That’s why foreign nations are looking for alternatives to the dollar system.

Probably the most visible single case is that of Francesca Albanese. The UN gave her the job of reporting on the treatment of Palestinians. Her report was critical of Israel. And now it is she who is mistreated. El Pais: Her visa was revoked...all her assets were frozen, including her bank account and her apartment in the United States, even though she now lives in Tunisia. In addition, she was placed on a blacklist that effectively cuts her off from the entire international banking system, as if she were a terrorist or a drug trafficker. Penalties were also established for any U.S. citizen who engages in financial or in-kind transactions with her - including, for example, her husband, who works at the World Bank, and her daughter. “In theory, they can’t even invite me for a coffee, because they could be fined up to $1 billion or face up to 20 years in prison...”

Only people with the ‘right’ opinions will be allowed to voice them. Otherwise, they could be cut off from their money. And the system will be managed, not by Congress, the courts or even the Fed…but by AI. So, when your back account is blocked and your credit card doesn’t work...you will try to find out why. What charges were filed? What court found you guilty? Who is responsible? “We’re sorry but the purchase you are attempting to make is not authorized,” will come the answer."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Home Depot And Walmart Issue Stark Warning To U.S. Market"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 4/20/26

"Home Depot And Walmart Issue 

Stark Warning To U.S. Market"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"The Funniest Post You’ll Ever Read About Society, Values, And Waffles"

"The Funniest Post You’ll Ever Read 

About Society, Values, And Waffles"

by John Wilder

"I’ve spent hours reviewing why the country I grew up in felt like it ran on autopilot: lawns were mowed, kids were in school, and front doors were unlocked at night and then turned into... this. The version I see in 2026 feels like it’s held together with duct tape, threats, with little or nothing shared. Friday, I wrote about how real personal change only happens when emotion rewires values from the inside. I think that same principle scales up to the societal level.

A highly functioning society doesn’t run on rules and cops. It runs on a shared vision and voluntary self-enforcement: you don’t have fist fights between naked people in Waffle House® at 3AM where I end up losing a shoe because that’s simply not done. When that vision fades, you get more rules, more monitors, more guys with badges and attitude. And the whole thing gets heavier, slower, and meaner. And less free. Let me tell you what doesn’t build a free, cohesive society.

First, someone making people comply. North Korea proves it works if your goal is terrified people who cry when the Dear Leader walks by and you don’t mind the occasional public execution for wearing the wrong socks. Compliance by force is easy. Loyalty? Not so much. People smile on the outside and cringe on the inside. That’s not a society. That’s just a prison with better choreography.

Second, someone with power monitoring me to make me comply. Remember 2020-2021? It wasn’t technically illegal to say no to the clotshot, but tell that to the people who lost their jobs, their airline seat, or couldn’t put their kids in school without it. A whole lot of people who would’ve skipped it folded under the overt pressure of “your papers, please.” Some complied, without believing. Big difference between that and the True Believers.

Third, someone moving society to monitor my behavior. The GloboLeftElite tried to turn the internet into one giant hall monitor. COVID was the big opportunity. Disagree on Twitter® about anything, (masks, origins, side effects) and poof, banned. The goal was simple: only the approved narrative gets to be broadcast. The goal was: brainwash the populace into one artificial shared vision by deleting every other idea.

But we didn’t need any of that garbage back when the country actually worked. Back then we had a shared set of values. Values kept lawns mowed without code enforcement officers. Values kept people showing up to work, paying their bills, and not stealing the neighbor’s Amazon® packages. Values were the invisible fence that let a free people stay free.

A huge part of the collapse is the deliberate feminization of society. Women are wonderful creatures. Their nurturing and care are the reason families exist and babies don’t die in the woods. But scale that instinct up to the level of national policy and it turns horrifying.

An illiterate military-age man crossing the border illegally triggers the exact same emotional circuit as a crying baby, especially in the spinster wine-aunt who never had kids. The illegal becomes a surrogate for the kid her barren womb never produced. Must help. Must clean it up. Must give it a chance.

And when it rapes or murders? Well, punishing it is so mean. It just needs more care. That same instinct created the victimhood hierarchy we see everywhere now. Who’s crying the loudest today? Which baby gets the most snacks, the most attention, the most special rules? The entire GloboLeft runs on sorting victims by volume.

The attempt to replace old values ran for decades through every TV show from M*A*S*H to Maude to Diff’rent Strokes to Golden Girls. Every single “very special episode” was a Trojan horse. Archie Bunker® would land a zinger, then spend the last two minutes being proven to be the world’s biggest idiot.

The message was clear: your grandparents’ values are dumb and mean. Here, try these shiny new ones instead. The replacement values, however, weren’t built on what is True, Beautiful, and Good. They were built on lies.

“There’s only one race, the human race.”

“They’re just like us!”

“This isn’t a nation, it’s a country built only on ideas, not on the posterity of the Founders.”

“Every idea is equally valuable.”

“Love is love.”

I could go on. The lies are finally becoming visible to the general public, the way they always do when reality shows up with receipts. What’s coming back are the old values, because those are the only ones that actually work at scale. Getting there won’t be easy. Societies don’t pivot on a dime. There will be stunning levels of violence, which is the pain that comes from feminists not understanding that foreigners aren’t the same thing as babies.

The emotional foundation of the country is shift. I think we will win, because we represent what’s True, Beautiful, and Good, and those that represent that will control the switch on the society that rises from the rubble. If the nation that follows is lucky, they will have the shared values that once made voluntary self-enforcement the norm and not the shattered “all against all” values of an India or a Haiti.

Rejecting Hollywood’s® propaganda, the GloboLeftist victim Olympics, must be replaced by the old, sturdy values, the ones rooted in family, work, truth, and a common language and culture. Importing millions who share none of that doesn’t enrich: it dilutes until the shared vision evaporates and only the cops remain.

I’m not naive. The GloboLeftElite won’t surrender the microphone quietly. The lies have been lucrative. But lies always collapse under their own weight. And that shoe I lost at Waffle House®? I’ve developed a solution: IHOP®."

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

"War: The Middle East 4/20/26"

Prof John Mearsheimer, Jeffrey Sachs, 4/20/26

"Dark Hour Arrives: Iran Will Destroy Israel – 

Major Cities Sink into Panic"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

A Must-view!

Full screen recommended.

Professor Marandi Updates, 4/20/26

"If the U.S. Invades Iran - 

The 3 Guaranteed Outcomes Nobody Is Talking About"

"What happens if the United States launches a full ground invasion of Iran? In this high-stakes analysis, we break down why a conventional military victory might lead to a catastrophic strategic defeat. From the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint to the "system" Iran built to make American power meaningless, we explore the three guaranteed outcomes nobody is talking about. This video uncovers how a single decision could trigger a global economic collapse, activate a multi-front regional war, and reshape the world order in favor of America’s rivals. Featuring insights on asymmetric warfare, oil supply shocks, and the "strategic trap" waiting in the Middle East."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Canadian Prepper, 4/20/26

"Alert! Iran/USA Talks Collapsing; Historic Attack 

On Russia; STRATCOM Doomsday EAMs"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Dialogue Works, 4/20/26

"Larry Johnson: The Strait of Hormuz Just 

Became a Graveyard for US Dominance"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/20/26"

"Economic Market Snapshot 4/20/26"

Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

○

"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

o

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

○

- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

o

Musical Interlude: 2002, "A Divine Encounter"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "A Divine Encounter"

"Carl Sagan: Does This One Photograph Prove Humanity Is Alone?"

"Carl Sagan: Does This One 

Photograph Prove Humanity Is Alone?"

"Discover the story of Carl Sagan’s "Pale Blue Dot" and how Voyager 1 changed our understanding of the cosmos forever. This documentary-style exploration dives into astronomy, space exploration, and the astrophysics of our 'lonely speck' in the universe."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Brian Greene Universe, 

"Something Was Here Before Us…

 And Scientists Are Horrified"

"What if humanity is not the first intelligent presence in the universe? What if something existed long before us… watching, evolving, or leaving behind traces we are only now beginning to understand? In this mind-expanding video inspired by the work of Brian Greene, we explore shocking scientific theories about the origins of the universe, hidden dimensions, and the possibility that unknown forms of intelligence may have existed before human civilization. From the mysteries of the Big Bang to the strange implications of string theory and multiverse concepts, modern physics is uncovering clues that challenge everything we think we know about existence. Could there be evidence hidden deep in space-time? Are we truly alone, or part of a much larger cosmic story?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"A Look to the Heavens"

"This fantastic skyscape lies near the edge of NGC 2174 a star forming region about 6,400 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation of Orion. It follows mountainous clouds of gas and dust carved by winds and radiation from the region's newborn stars, now found scattered in open star clusters embedded around the center of NGC 2174, off the top of the frame.

Though star formation continues within these dusty cosmic clouds they will likely be dispersed by the energetic newborn stars within a few million years. Recorded at infrared wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, the interstellar scene spans about 6 light-years. Scheduled for launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is optimized for exploring the Universe at infrared wavelengths."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

o

"In 2003, a SETI satellite, designed to remain operational until 2008, suddenly stopped transmitting three years earlier than expected.

The incident seemed destined to remain a simple technical glitch, until, after thirteen years of absolute silence, the signal returned. But the most disconcerting detail wasn't the reactivation itself: the new transmission came from a location estimated to be about ten light-years from Earth, as if the satellite had made a journey impossible for any human technology.

This gave rise to the boldest hypothesis: passage through a wormhole, a space-time tunnel capable of connecting extremely distant points in the universe in extremely short timeframes. In relativistic theory, a wormhole - or Einstein-Rosen bridge - is a hypothetical structure of space-time, a sort of gravitational tunnel that joins two distant ends through an extreme curvature of the cosmic fabric. In this model, matter could pass through the wormhole and reemerge on the other side, bypassing the distances separating stars and planetary systems.

This singularity, if it ever existed in a stable form, would represent a cosmic shortcut, a passage that defies the laws of classical physics and that, at least in theory, would allow an object to travel light-years in a relatively short time. The idea that an Earth satellite could have passed through such a phenomenon remains speculative, but the very concept of a wormhole continues to exert a profound fascination: a bridge between what we know and what still eludes our understanding, an invitation to imagine a universe far more complex and dynamic than it appears."

- https://www.quora.com/

Chet Raymo, “When The Morning Stars Sing Together”

“When The Morning Stars Sing Together”

by Chet Raymo

“A Chinese proverb: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Which might be an acceptable epigraph for this blog. I can’t imagine anyone coming here looking for answers. Certainly, providing answers is the last thing on my mind. I would like to think you come for song.

We are, I think, by and large, a community who distrusts answers, at least answers that are vehemently held. We are made uncomfortable by stridency. By dogma. By the desire to proselytize. We wear our truths lightly, gaily, as a song bird wears its feathers. We are grateful to those who push back the clouds of ignorance and hold the reins of passion. With Blake, we sing their praises, a song we have spent a lifetime learning. We sing to celebrate. We sing because we have a song.”

- http://blog.sciencemusings.com/